Zhejiang police uncover theft of 3 billion pieces of personal data

China Plus Published: 2018-08-29 16:08:32
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Local police in Shaoxing in east China's Zhejiang Province have uncovered the largest ever theft of personal data in China's history. It has been alleged that three billion pieces of personal data were illegally obtained, reports Science and Technology Daily.

The data was allegedly stolen from the country's major telecommunication service providers by three suspect companies. 

[File photo: VCG]

[File photo: VCG]

According to the report, malware developed by the companies was installed on the servers of China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, and China Tietong Telecom in a dozen provinces and prefecture-level cities. 

The companies gained access to the servers after they were contracted to provide maintenance for the advertising platforms of these telecoms providers.

It is alleged that the stolen data was subsequently used by the suspect companies for marketing campaigns online. The data was allegedly used to control users' social media accounts so that they could be used to follow or praise other accounts.

So far a total of 96 Internet companies, including Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, and Jinri Toutiao have been found to have been involved in the operation. 

The Beijing-based company Ruizhi Huasheng Tech has been locked down by police, accused of being the company at the center of the alleged data theft. 

Investigation into the data breach is still ongoing. 

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